Playing with fire

Question Results

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Question:

Who chucked the manuscript of his Eighth Symphony on the fire in 1945, thus ensuring that it would never be heard?

Response:

	Antonín Dvořák
	Jean Sibelius
	Feedback: Correct! For the last 25 years of his life the Finnish Romantic composer didn't publish any music and the Eighth Symphony has become one of the great 'lost' pieces of classical music.
	Carl Nielsen

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Question:

For which opera did Holst write a ballet in which a magician conjures up the spirits of earth, water and then fire?

Response:

	'The Perfect Fool'
	'At the Boar's Head'
	Feedback: It was 'The Perfect Fool'. The opera, written in 1918-1922, begins with a ballet in which spirits are summoned by a wizard, who recalls 'Uranus: the magician' in the composer's 'The Planets'
	'The Wandering Scholar'

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Question:

Which southern Italian opera house, which burnt down in suspicious circumstances in 1991, finally re-opened in 2009 with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony?

Response:

	The Teatro Massimo, Palermo
	The Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
	Feedback: It was the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. The last work to be performed in the theatre before the fire was Bellini's opera 'Norma'.
	The Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari

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Question:

For which work did the composer Manuel de Falla write his 'Ritual Fire Dance'?

Response:

	'Nights in the Gardens of Spain'
	Feedback: It was 'Love, the magician', or to give it its Spanish title 'El amor brujo'. The work was originally written for chamber group and then made into a ballet. The work also includes the 'Dance of Terror'.
	'Love, the magician'
	'The Three-Cornered Hat'

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Question:

Which king, who sent three Israelites into a burning fiery furnace, features in a church parable by Britten and an eponymous cantata by George Dyson?

Response:

	Saul
	Belshazzar
	Nebuchadnezzar
	Feedback: Correct! It was Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian empire. Three Jews – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – refused to worship an idol and the king had them cast into a furnace, only for them to emerge unscathed.

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Question:

For which monarch did Handel compose the Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749?

Response:

	George I
	George II
	George III
	Feedback: It was George II and the work was written to celebrate the end of the War of Austrian Succession.

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Question:

Who, in Wagner's Ring cycle, punished Brünnhilde by keeping her prisoner on a rock, surrounded by a ring of fire?

Response:

	Alberich
	Fricka
	Wotan
	Feedback: Correct! Wotan is the king of the gods and her father. She is rescued by Siegfried.

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Question:

Which work-shy composer was initially asked to write ballet music for The Firebird before Diaghilev handed the commission over to Stravinsky instead?

Response:

	Anatoly Lyadov
	Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
	Feedback: It was Anatoly Lyadov. The Grove Dictionary of Music says of him 'He was held in great affection by his fellow musicians, and, although he never completed a work of any size or scope, the best of his miniatures assure for him a permanent niche in the history of Russian music.'
	Henry Litolff

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Question:

Canadian rock group Arcade Fire found their song 'Intervention' surprisingly covered by which American opera singer in 2010?

Response:

	Plácido Domingo
	Joyce DiDonato
	Renée Fleming
	Feedback: Correct! The song appeared on her album 'Dark Hope' which also included covers of songs by Muse, Death Cab for Cutie and Duffy.

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Question:

Which composer's 1956 song 'Auto-da-Fé' includes the line 'It's a lovely day for drinking and for watching people fry'?

Response:

	Leonard Bernstein
	Kurt Weill
	Feedback: It was Leonard Bernstein and the song comes from his opera 'Candide', inspired by Voltaire's satirical book of the same name.
	George Gershwin